Accounting Enrollments Up Despite Ethics Scandals

Contrary to logic, scandals in the corporate world have been a good thing for accounting schools at Iowa's public universities. Enrollment jumped substantially this fall and there's no sign it will let up. "Our numbers are up sharply," said MORTON PINCUS, chairman of the accounting department at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. "It's a great problem to have too many students." The same trend was evident at Iowa State University in Ames and the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls as well. Many school officials attribute the increases to the schools' recruitment efforts in past years. But in larger part, the expanding classes may be benefitting more from headlines of corporate demise and ethical scandals in accounting companies."Accounting has been on the front page for a year now almost every day or every week," Pincus said. "And for better or worse, people are seeing its importance in the corporate world. This is our 15 minutes of fame."